


The Record Unfolds

by Herath



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28762518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herath/pseuds/Herath
Summary: They say during one's most turbulent times a spirit approaches offering relief. It offers a chance to flee into a new world where their troubles are solved, but it requires the passing of various hurdles to prove the strength of their resolve. Are they willing to sacrifice the chance of redemption? Have they lost all hope in their current situation? Will they pass these trials for a brighter tomorrow or go back to their world and deal with the hand they were dealt? Who really knows?
Kudos: 4





	The Record Unfolds

It was unfair. The monks were being so unfair. The tattooed boy’s knuckles were white as he gripped at the fibrous ropes in his hands. The roar of the storm deafened his ears, and the droplets felt like needles stabbing into his skin.

He barely had time to collect his thoughts when, with a flash of lightning, Appa was sent crashing into the ocean.

After the water filled his ears, the ocean was so quiet. He could hardly hear the peltering of the rain drops on the waves.

The water was frigid, and the undercurrent was overwhelming. The bald-headed monk felt his body being tossed around like a ragdoll. The reins. Was he still holding onto Appa? His fingers were cold. His limbs were numb. He doubted that if he tried he could swim up to the surface. But, he had to swim up to the surface. He had to save his flying friend.

A torrent of power surged through his body. Filling his veins with a familiar warmth, a rich sense of experience flooded his muscles as they moved by themselves. His body didn’t feel like his own. It moved with such strong conviction as if it’s been through the motions hundreds of times. All Aang could do was watch as the dark waters illuminated with a spiritual glow.

Sucking everything close to the center, the water swirled around him and suddenly froze. If he couldn’t move his limbs before, he certainly couldn’t now. Regret was the last thing he felt before his vision faded away.

* * *

When the monk woke up, he was in a black void. His eyes strained trying to make sense of the neverending darkness in front of him. It was like seeing on forever while also staring at a wall. When he extended his arm, he broke through the wall but only penetrated as deep as his arm was long.

The space wasn't dark in the traditional sense. His body was well lit. When he looked at his limbs, they were fully visible, and he could take steps forward without feeling the familiar sense of being disorientated or lost. Every step felt like he knew where he was going, and his balance was assured.

"Aaaggh! Walking is taking forever," the young avatar groaned.  
Rubbing his chin, he started to flex his arms though his smooth movements turned more into erratic flailing as nothing happened. "Huh? My bending doesn't work. Weird."

So, there he was just wandering in this vast void. Time flew by, or at least, the young bender thought time flew by. Although he didn’t feel energized, neither hunger nor fatigue gave him any sign that he was wasting away. His glider was gone. Appa was nowhere in sight. He was left alone in the dark with just his thoughts.

He wondered how Gyatso was doing. Would his friend be chastised because he ran away?

“Gah!” Aang growled, grabbing his head in frustration as he dropped into a squat, “It’s all so unfair!”

The weather, the monks, his friends, and his freedom all turned sour the day they told him he was the avatar. Their faces when he asked them if he could play was engraved into his mind. He taught them how to use the air scooter, but they looked at him in pity or was it sorrow. Either way his sudden status as the avatar made any side he was on too unfair to play.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the other monks told them not to play with him. They were already planning on separating him from Gyatso, so they were obviously trying to separate him from everything he cared about. Were they going to take Appa away from him too?

Following that train of thought, Aang could feel his blood boil.

“Deep breaths, deep breaths,” the boy huffed, trying to calm himself, but this only left him with a gut wrenching coldness.

Well, whatever the monks planned for him, it didn't matter. He was entirely alone now in a place with literally no familiarity.

"If only I wasn't the Avatar," he mumbled, his arms crossed on his knees with his head buried between them.

"That's all I needed to hear."

"What? Who said that?" Aang jumped up and looked around. His surroundings still looked the same except...There! There was a twinkling light in the distance.

"Go into the light, Avatar Aang."

The bald monk hesitated. "Ah, I appreciate the company disembodied voice, but I don't think I'm ready to die just yet, sorry."

He could've sworn he heard the voice sigh.

"I suppose that was a bad turn of phrase. I assure you that you'll be perfectly fine… couldn't even kill you if I wanted to."

"What was that last part?"

"Nothing. Just walk into the light...bald one."

"Well, if you're going to be like that, I'm not sure I want to listen to some literal no body!"

"I have a body! Just walk into the light already."

Aang bit his lip. He had nothing to lose anymore. Appa was somewhere far out of his reach no matter how loud he yelled or how long he walked. If this thing had even the chance of being helpful, he’d take it. Tentatively, he made his way towards the light until his eyes were completely filled.

“Welcome, Avatar Aang.”

“Ah, thank you uhhh…” the young boy hummed, blinking away his blindness.

“You can call me Akasha, and these are my records.”

Now with his vision cleared, Aang could see who he was facing and where he was. It was a quaint little room. If there were three of him standing arm to arm, that length would make up the dimensions of the room. There was a beige, dusty lighting, and the walls were lined with compartments filled with scrolls.

A large oak desk, about three feet off the ground, hid the being’s lower torso. They had rather androgynous features. Their skin was pale but glistened like pearls. Their face was slim and framed by shoulder blade length, raven hair. Their eyes were a stormy grey that seemed to change color when caught in the light, and, on the bridge of their nose, there were two round, wire framed glasses.

“Thank you, Sir...Ma’am… Akasha.”

“Just Akasha is fine,” they laughed. Listening closer to their voice, Aang noted that what he first thought was a deep, masculine voice was a collection of different voices. Their words seemed to reverberate through his muscles and soothe his nerves.

"Thank you, Akasha," the monk smiled, bowing his head, "may I ask why you brought me here?"

"You could ask me that, but does it really matter?"

"Yes, yes it does," Aang said matter of factly.

"Oh, well then."

They stared at one another…

"Hah, give me a moment to think of a way to explain the nature of this place." The being put their hand to their chin to think for a moment.

"I mean if it's too hard."

"No, no just thinking about how to explain it so you would understand," Akasha responded, waving off the monk's concern. "Okay, if you get caught in a fire what will happen?"

"I’ll be burnt."

"Yes, and let's say if you're poor and hungry and the town hall is serving free lunch. What do you do?"

"I would go to the town hall to get food."

"Okay, now let's say someone lights a fire in the town hall when you get there for your free food, and you get caught in it."

"Well, I'd die."

"Yes, and, now, I'm betting you're thinking of ways that you wouldn't die like what if you just went one more day without food?"

"Yeah, what if I chose not to go? Then, I would have lived."

"That's true, but that choice was made with the knowledge that a fire was going to be lit at the town hall. The facts of the scenario are that you're poor and hungry, and the town hall is serving free food. You've already said you would go, and there's no reason that you were aware of not to go."

"So, what you're saying is no matter what I did, because I wasn't aware of the fire, I would die?"

"Close. What I'm trying to say is that everything has a cause and effect. For each cause, there are a multitude of absolute effects which means everything happens for a reason."

"You mean me being the avatar, being thrown into a stormy ocean, being alone is happening for some reason? Well, that sucks."

"Yeah, it does suck, and I have every future, past, and present sucky moment right here!"

Holding up their open hand, a scroll from a wall flew into it. The small scroll unrolled and unrolled and unrolled some more. Aang’s eyes had a similar effect in that they got wider the longer the scroll went on.

"Avatar Aang, friend of Gyatso, Bumi, Kuzon, made the air scooter, airbending master before the age of 16, wet the bed until… well I can go on" Akasha stopped unfurling the paper. "You see I'm something like a record keeper, transcriber, librarian type of spirit. Each scroll here represents a different significant choice or deviation from another scroll. Each one is a different reality, a different story."

"But, I thought you said there wasn't a thing like choice that everything happens for a reason."

"If choice means that if you were to be placed in the exact situation again and have the chance to choose a different outcome, then yes, choice doesn't exist. But, if choice is your ability to want a different reality or a different outcome, then yes, choice exists. For example, while the choice to stay home or go to the town hall doesn't exist, the desire to not be poor does exist and changes things drastically."

"I see, so what about this interaction we're having right now? Is this already recorded in some scroll?"

"I cannot answer that question, but I can assure you that there's something special about this place. This is the place where desires are tested and realities are made. Keep in mind we don’t record insignificant things like what if you wanted a blue glider instead of an orange one."

"Wait… so hold on… Aggh! My brain hurts," Aang groaned, rubbing his temple. "What does all of this even have to do with me?"

"Right now, your body is frozen under the ocean. You have no allies, and no one knows where you are. All of this is because you are the avatar. Your future has already been decided. The you that stands right in front of me is the manifestation of your desire for a different life where you aren't the avatar."

"Can you do that? Can you really give me the life I want?"

"Oh, I can't do that. I'm only here to test the strength of your resolve. Whether you pass or not will determine what happens next."

"And what about my sky bison, Appa, what's going to happen to him? Last thing I remember, we were drowning."

"I can't tell you what happens to him, but I can tell you right now that he's frozen in ice along with you. What you do here will not affect what happens to him."

"Then, I want to go back. I have to save him!”

“Are you dumb? I just told you that you’re both stuck in ice. How do you expect to get out of it?”

“I don’t know, but I have to try!”

“You know usually I’d stop you there and send you back to your body, really I would, but I can’t in good health send back someone so dumb without giving them a chance to take back their words."

"Send me back."

"Tch, fine."

With a snap of their fingers, Aang was back in the empty black void.

* * *

"Alright, let's get to it!" the boy shouted, standing up to his feet with his fists clenched.

Hours? Days? Weeks? Later…

Nothing worked. No matter how far he walked in one direction, or how hard he tried to bend, he just couldn’t escape this place he was in. At various times, he thought the blank scape was all just a dream and tried to slap himself awake to no avail.

It was completely silent. The only noise he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat. A rhythmic thumping seemed to be the only semblance of time passing. He was well past his millionth heartbeat, and what started as a dull drumbeat became a piercing drill after the hundredth thousand beat. He felt like he was going mad.

How was he going to help his furry buddy if he couldn’t even escape this dark prison he was in? If he couldn’t escape, what chance did he have of being the avatar anyways? Appa wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for him, and he wouldn’t have acted this way if he wasn’t the avatar.

All his problems came down to one factor: being the avatar.

“I’ve decided. Akasha, I want to change my destiny.”

“Finaaaalllyyy…” the familiar disembodied voice groaned as a star of light appeared in the distance, “I wondered how much longer you were going to take. You know where to go, right?”

“Yep, straight through the light,” Aang responded, looking straight into the light with a steely glint in his eye.

Within a few moments, he was back in the quaint little room. Akasha looked at him with their eyes closed and a small, closed lip smile on their face.

“Welcome back. I assume you’re ready to hear me out?”

Aang nodded silently.

“Great. So, I’ve already gone over the nature of this place, right?”

“Yes, this place is where different worlds are made, and each world has a bunch of things different from the next.” The monk tried not to think about the mind shattering altercations of such a revelation. “This means that there’s a place where I’m not the avatar, right?”

“I suppose that’s the reason you’re here: to make a world where you aren’t the avatar.”

“Is it that easy? Pass a few tests and a whole new world is made?”

“Yes, it is that simple on your part. Now, are you willing to take on these trials?”

“I think I’m ready.”

“Excellent, then, allow me to explain the basic rules before we start. First, of all, you will be undergoing this trial with two other people.”

“Two other people? You mean there are multiple people going through the same stuff I’m going through?”

Akasha stared at the small monk for a moment before shaking their head and continuing on.

“Hey-”

“Secondly, you will not discuss your past with these teammates or anyone else you meet outside of this room. Thirdly, you will now go by the name Kanto. If you agree, sign right here,” the spirit said, pulling a contract and quill from their robe’s sleeves.

Aang hesitated to grab the quill due to all the questions swimming in his head, but he had nothing to lose now. He would rather step into the unknown to be in a world where his friends wouldn’t be punished for being the avatar than be back in that void.

Signing the bottom of the parchment, the young monk felt a light warmth surge through his body, and it seemed to stay on his head. He had hair! His eyes went to look at his hands, and his tattoos were gone as well! His clothes were now shades of black and red instead of orange and brown.

“You look good. The hair suits you,” the spirit chuckled, their eyes roaming up and down the transformed boy’s body.

“What’d you do to me?” Aang, or was it Kanto now, yelped.

“Just some precautions. Don’t worry about it. Just remember that your name is Kanto now, and you can’t explicitly talk about your past to your teammates.”

“Why? Do I know them or something?”

“Who knows?” the spirit shrugged. “I just want to make the final trial as impartial as possible.”

“So by identifying my teammates, do I gain some type of advantage in these challenges?”

“Again. Who knows? Now, if you would turn around and walk through the door. Your teammates will be waiting in the tenth door to your left.”

“Door?” Aang mumbled, turning around to see that there was indeed a door where scroll cupboards used to be. Flashing a look back at the spirit, the young boy saw them waving their hands as if egging him to go through the door.

He was so confused and had so little knowledge to go off of; but if he stopped here, nothing would change. Well, nothing would change either way in his world. According to Akasha, everything that would happen in his world is destined to happen, and there was hardly anything he could do but take these trials and escape his reality.

What does that make him? Was he a clone or some astral projection? Were Appa and him destined to die in a block of ice? Did it even matter since another avatar would be born after he died? Why couldn’t he discuss his past with his teammates?

His head began to spin as he tried to process all his questions, but his body forced itself to open the door and begin walking. He felt Akasha’s eyes smiling at him until the door closed shut.

“Tenth door to my left,” Aang thought to himself, barely being able to register the fact that the black void was replaced with a never ending hallway of doors. The ceiling was infinitely tall and faded away in a dense fog the higher one looked, but the hallway was narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Each side was lined with doors from which little snippets of conversation were heard.

There was something about cabbages. There was something about a little soldier boy. There was crying, and there was shouting. Aang’s head was too filled with thoughts to pay too much attention to them. Instead, he swiftly made his way to the tenth door.

His hands fumbled with the doorknob, and he couldn’t hear any noise coming from the other side. Pushing the wooden slab open, he noticed two other people sitting on wooden benches far apart from one another. They were awkwardly staring into their hands, twiddling their thumbs. A dull beige light filled the room from the lanterns on the bare, wooden walls.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Aang thought, flicking his eyes back and forth at his teammates. Fire and wood don’t usually work well together.

There was a teenage boy with raven, short black hair and green eyes. He was wearing a black vest with a long-sleeved, green undershirt. His skin was flawless and pale except for his hands which looked well worn. He was sitting on the left side of the room.

On the right side of the room, there was a girl, slightly younger looking than the boy but older than Aang, who had earthen brown hair and blue eyes. Her skin was tan, and her face was slim. Although, there was something about her that looked off. Her bangs were so uneven and frayed like she cut them haphazardly. Her clothes were blue and white.

He assumed they were from the earthbending and waterbending kingdoms respectively, but, considering what Akasha did to him, he couldn’t trust what he was looking at. Coughing into his fist, he caught their attention. Their heads flicked up to look at him.

“Hey, I’m Kanto. I think you guys are my teammates?”

“Lee.” The boy nodded.

“Kyo.” The girl waved.

They didn’t give much more information than that and went back to twiddling their thumbs.

“ _This is going to be great._ "


End file.
